The Sea Anemone

For a time she dwelt half-formed in a cave, looking out over the colourful pebbles and the world beyond, her smooth stone heart brim-full with the malice of the third sister's tears. Slowly she began to explore the sea and shoreline beyond the cave; she observed the fragility of all warm-blooded beings and learned the value of beauty and salt. She then took shape and walked out amongst the shingle; her skin was as pale as sea foam and her eyes as blue as the sea itself. Her hair she coloured from a memory of the third sister, and her face and form were as smooth and perfectly curved as the many-hued pebbles that lay upon the shore. She fashioned garments from the seaweeds upon the beach and climbed the cliff in search of young and tender flesh.

Deadly, alluring glamour were my bywords as I lived and breathed Sea Anemone red for a good many weeks while constructing the costume. I began with the tentacles which I knitted in a similar manner to the collar feathers I designed for the Raven. I felted them until they stood by themselves and then knitted the collar in the round in one piece. I then rolled it in on itself so that it formed a trench into which I stitched the tentacles.

I based the silhouette on the columnar curvy shape of the anemone and extended the length in a nod to its attachment to rocks. I designed a textured pattern for the upper body and embroidered little “beadlets” in a brighter red and centred these within the textured waving pattern lines. I then made the lower body with a curving extended hemline in panels worked from side-to-side and shaped it to fit from hips to ankles using short rows.

By way of her “catch” I knitted and felted a mermaid’s purse encrusted with free-form embroidery. I then created various smaller felted forms – a felted starfish caught in a net and various knitted forms of seaweed.

Alice Starmore